Tasty Tuesday: EASY Supper

You really should trust me here. Make this tonight. It is the perfect weather for it. Do not let your family see you make it. They will think that you worked very hard on this soup and it can be our little secret.

The great thing about this soup is that it is EASY and VERY YUMMY. Those two combinations don't always go together, but in this case they definitely do.
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A big shout out to Aunt Joan for sending me this recipe. THANK YOU!!! It is sooooo good! I know I already said that, but it really is.


Busy Mom/Working Woman's Tortilla Soup

1 Large Can -26 oz. chicken and rice soup
1 can chicken broth
1 can pinto beans
1 can Rotel diced tomatoes and green chili
1 can chunk chicken ( Instead of can I buy the roasted chicken and cut it up --use about two thirds=-use other part for chicken salad-just depend how chickenie you want it )

Put all ingredients into a pot and simmer 10 minutes.......
season if you like garlic powder, etc.
Ladle into bowls and top with crushed tortilla chips and grated cheese-monterrey/chedder, dollop of sour cream/guacamole

I have added a can of crisp corn or can of hominy-Yummy!

Freezes well in ziploc individual serving bags.
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I used the can of chicken because I was in hurry and it was super good. I also used black beans because that is what I had in the cabinet. Make sure you top it off with the cheese, chips, and sour cream.

Easy peasy as Courtney would say!

What 6 Looks Like

Sweet, precious, fun, smart, pretty, loving, kind, thoughtful, and friendly are just a few words that describe C at the age of six. She turned six on Thursday and it was the perfect day followed by the perfect weekend. Way more to come from her birthday celebration!

Here are a few more things that I want to remember about her at 6:

1. The way that she still wants my approval about everything. She is a major rule follower and a pleaser.

2. Her beautiful, contagious smile.

3. Her love for all her family.

4. She is excited about school every single day.

5. Her creativity. She can take anything and make something out of it!

6. The way she watches out for her little brother.

7. She always thinks about others feelings.

8. She loves animals....especially kitties. (more on that soon!)

9. She makes friends easily and holds them dear.


We had a tea party at the house on Saturday for her birthday. It was so fun! She also got a very special gift for her birthday that she has been wanting for a very, very long time. I'm going to try to get it all blogged about over the next few days so stay tuned!

Happy 6th Birthday sweet girl!! We love you so much!

I Don't Like Him

Old Man Winter.

I detest him.

I need some of those gloves that let your fingers stick out.

I need some vitamin D.

I need a big pot of homeade chicken noodle soup.

The End.

Oh, and I just realized this is my 200th blog post. I think I also need to get a life. Ha! Thanks to everyone who has stuck around to read about our little family 200 times...and thanks for occasionally listening to my selfish wining. ;)

Wish we were all here or here.

Tasty Tuesday: Winner!

Drumroll.......

The winner of Pioneer Woman's cookbook is Angela from The Throne Family!!! E-mail me at kat_wiethorn@yahoo.com and give me your address and it will be on it's way to you!

It was fun hearing everybody's favorite Thanksgiving dishes. I'm totally laughing about everybody loving the "old lady" congealed (sp?) salads!

For a Tasty Tuesday treat, I'll share the recipe to my favorite side dish...which is also my mom's favorite. She entered the contest through e-mail because the comment thing is not use friendly. On that note, I'm trying to figure out how to do open comments so it's easier.

This recipe is one that my mom makes every year and she got it from a friend that she taught with back in the day. ;) Sorry peeps, it's not a congealed salad.

Panamanian Rice
4 strips of bacon
1 chopped onion
1 chopped green pepper
1 1/2 cups chopped celery w/leaves
1 cup uncooked long grain rice
1 can beef boullion
1 tsp. poultry seasoning
1/2 tsp. curry powder
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
1 sm. can sliced mushrooms
salt & pepper to taste

Fry bacon crisp. In bacon drippings, saute onion, green pepper, and celery. Add raw rice and stir well. Add boullion and one cup of water, spices, mushrooms, and crumbled bacon to mixture, bring to a boil. Pour into a 2qt cassersole dish, cook at 350 for 45 minutes covered and then for 15 minutes uncovered.

YUMMY! You should try it. You won't be disappointed. It is really better the next day, too. :)

And just because he's cute and hot chocolate is tasty...so that means we are still staying with the theme here....wouldn't want to stray from that, you know....here's G last night with his hot chocolate:

Thankful

Thankful for a busy but fun weekend.

Thankful that Justin made it safely to Vegas with a good friend for some much needed R&R.

Thankful that my sister could go with the kids and I to San Antonio.

Thankful that Anderson Oil & Tire quickly came to my rescue when the battery to the car was dead when we tried to leave for SA Saturday morning.

Thankful that we made it safely to San Antonio just in time to pick up my race packet.

Thankful that I inherited my Dad's calm and cool sense of direction to get us right where we needed to go when technology failed us.

Thankful that we all slept well Saturday night in the hotel room. (you never know how it will go with kiddos in a new place!)

Thankful for a healthy body that ran me through 13.1 miles of historic San Antonio.

Thankful that it is over.

Thankful for all my sweet family and friends that texted, called, and encouraged me this weekend.

Thankful for my sister who endured fighting the masses upon masses of people to be there with my kiddos during the race and when the race was finished.


Thankful that friends that did the full marathon (26.2 miles) safely achieved their goal.

Thankful that I did not have to run 26.2 miles.

Thankful that my sister drove us home after the race.

Thankful for Nana and Papa who came and fed and bathed the kids Sunday evening because my body would not work.

Thankful that Justin made it home safely Sunday night.

Just plain thankful.

Notes about the race:
Great running atmosphere. Too many people. Nice flat course. Too many people. Fun bands to listen to along the way. Too many people. Great scenery on the course. Too many people.

Did I say that there were too many people?

Thankful that I don't have to do that again.

Thankful for the pride that I have in accomplishing a goal.

Kute Kangaroos

Life has been fun and busy lately and there has been SO much that I haven't gotten to share. C's soccer season is one of those things.

She played again this fall and loved it once again! Half of her team stayed together and we got a new coach and new friends to fill out the team. Let me just say that this was the sweetest little group of girls ever and we had the best coach in the league hands down. No argument. He was patient, kind, generous, fun and fair. AND they had to work hard. All that wrapped into one is hard to find these days.

Courtney got off to a great start this season and had so much fun. She improved every week and even scored 5 goals in one of her later games. She is already ready for spring soccer to start.


Taking the ball down to score.

Listening intently to words of wisdom from Coach J.

Two C's on the team! Too cute!




Not a great picture, but here is Courtney right after she got her trophy at the end of season party. She is so proud of it.


Great season Kangaroos!!!

Tasty Tuesday: A GIVEAWAY!

It's no secret that I enjoy the Pioneer Woman's blog. Her recipes are also usually a hit around this house. Her new cookbook just came out and I have one to giveaway. It is already #1 on the New York Times Bestseller list this week.

Merry early Christmas!




Just leave a comment telling me what your favorite Thanksgiving side dish is and you'll be entered in the drawing! Love, Kathy

The Computer Click

Hey everyone! I just wanted to give a little shout out to Dana Coffey at The Computer Click. I recently had a little virus on my computer. You know what that means. Get your computer all loaded up and send it off for a little while so it can get fixed.

Not anymore!!

The Computer Click now offers remote access service. That's right. In most cases, in the comfort of your own home you can set Dana up to run your virus removal and you never have to leave home. Or get up. You can sit and eat bons bons while he fixes your problem.

Not that I would know anything about that.

The strangest thing is that they sell bon bons at our local hardware. That's the only place I've ever seen them. Ok, I know, I'm getting off subject.

Maybe Dana eats bon bons while he fixes the problem. Probably not. He's so smart though, he might can get away with it. Ok, sorry, I have ADD today.

If you have something funky going on with our computer, give Dana a call. He's fixed our computer, the church computer that I work on, and my mom's computer. He'll fix yours, too. He makes it painless I tell you. Don't delay, call today. You'll be glad you did.

Life is too short to keep sifting through all those error and virus messages. There are too many bon bons to be eaten.

A Public Service Announcement

From the G-man.



Stop.

And smell the roses.







It's the right thing to do.

Trick or Treat!

These girls are seasoned trick or treaters. They have it down. I think since birth they've treated together on the same little path to the same houses. They know exactly how it's done around here. I love the fact that they think that going to 4 or 5 houses is how it's done. ;) Please do not ever tell them that it is done differently or you will be in big trouble.



This year they led the way for the group. Add a brother, sister, and sweet little friend to their tradition and it just gets cuter. :)



The kids had fun going to a few houses in the neighborhood and then playing back at the house. Just the right speed for them and the parentals. C's favorite thing is handing out candy so it's always easy to convince her to head back to the house before it gets crazy on our street. We get LOTS of trick-or-treaters at our house! It is fun. Until we run out of candy. And have to turn the light out. :( We never seem to have enough no matter how much we buy. It's that busy!

Oh, and the kids were Bolt and Mittens from the Disney movie Bolt that Garrett is obsessed with these days. He was Bolt the superdog and Courtney was his sidekick Mittens from the movie. Right up her ally because she loves to be a kitty all the time. They wouldn't let me paint their faces, but it was still cute. :)



I hope everyone had a safe and fun Halloween!

Mama can't bake, but he doesn't care :)

Garrett was feeling much better by the time his actual birthday rolled around. I asked him what he wanted to eat for his birthday dinner and he said pizza. Big surprise. I then decided that there would definitely be time to bake a homeade cake if somebody else was doing the cooking for the meal. ;)

Garrett said he wanted a cherry cake. Ok. I decided that a red velvet cake would be close enough. I searched and searched for a recipe and finally settled for one I found online. I would have much rather found one in one of the many cookbooks I have, but it just didn't happen. I just had a gut feeling this was all going the wrong way, but we forged on and baked the mystery outcome red velvet cake.

The gut feeling was right. The cake was horrible and the icing turned out even worse. I can't believe that I'm posting this, but you'll see why from the picture. This little boy sure knows how to make his mommy feel better about a yucky cake. He thought it was the best cake in the world. One of the MANY, MANY reasons I love this kid to pieces.










See, I told you it was bad. I'm embarassed by the cake but I had to share his sweet excitement.

Please feel free to link me to your favorite red velvet cake recipe in the comments. ;)

Look at Me, Me, Me, I'm 3, 3, 3!

Our boy is 3 today!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY G-MAN!!!!

Three years ago today God gave us this perfect little bundle to care for.



Courtney made this for him all by herself and I just love it.






He loves blowing out candles! I have to keep him away from the candles at other birthday parties. He would blow out everybody's candles for them if I would let him!

I was so sad for him because he turned up sick on his party day (Sunday). We still had a celebration with family because he has been so excited about it all. We will have to do some type of fun make-up for him when and if he ever gets to feeling better....this boy has been sick off and on for a while now so he and I are on house arrest this week. We are hoping to have a healthy boy soon!

More pics to come soon!

Are they cute or what?

I put this one on my photography site, but I had to share here as well.



We had zero time and the weather was yucky, but there are LOTS of of cute ones. And I'm not just saying that because they are family. ;)

XOXO Love you guys!

Tasty Tuesday: Just for Fun

I'm doing a little too much running lately (literally) and not much blogging. On my long run on Sunday I thought about dinner. I thought about how I would be too tired after my run to fix anything hard. I thought about how I wanted to do something fun in the kitchen with the kids. Something that wasn't chocolate chip cookies that would cancel out the miles I just ran.

This is not rocket science and I know lots of moms that do this. I'm just posting because it was fun and if I don't post some pictures every once in a while the grandparents get restless. ;)

Take the 99cent off brand pizza, add a little cheese and whatever you want to make it fun and voila!!!


They loved it because it was cute and fun. I loved it because it was easy!
Everyone wins!

We're still here!

We've just been busy!



Hope to catch up soon!

Our Other Life

We have a whole other big family that I never blog about. Shame on me. About 73 members and their children if you really want to get technical about it. They are a big part of the reason that I get to be a stay-at-home-mommy. Farming and our calf crop make up for my absent teacher salary....and we get to do lots of the work together as a family. Such a plus. (Actually Justin does all the work and we play...most of the time...but there are plenty of days that we all get our hands dirty...and it's fun....most of the time) There are those few days out of the year that I question our sanity, but for the most part it's all good. The rain that has been coming down these last few days is a HUGE blessing that we have needed for sooooo long. May the creek run and the tanks be full!


Here is Courtney's favorite cow. Cow #3. Her tag fell out and she reminds us at least once a week that it needs to be replaced. I'm ordering custom hot pink ear tags for all the girls very soon. It will be a nice fashion statement.


Here's cow 407. Her ear tag is hard to read because somebody thought that black ear tags on black cows would be a great idea. Hot pink tags with black numbers will be so much better the next time around. Don't you think?


Check her figure out from the front...soon to be mommy! We are expecting our first calves of the season very soon!


Here is one of the bulls. He is not my friend. I try to stay far far away from him. He likes his space.


Yes, yes sir, I was in your space. When they paw the ground it is not a good thing. He must not like having his picture taken.


Here's little calf that is looking for his mommy.


Poor little guy is scared.


Sorry little buddy, I'm not your mommy.


Oh, yes, here we are. We were actually out here to work this day. I think I thought that we were just here to take pictures. We (and I use the term we very lightly) needed to take this fence down to build it at a better angle. It's going to make life so much easier next time we work cows. I can't wait. We have been procrastinating doing this, but after my physical therapy bill came in the mail from me tearing up my ankle from the last time we worked cows, this fence work became a necessity. I'm pumped. Crazy to be pumped over a fence, but I truly am!


Raising her right.


She's a good little helper.


G-Man thinks he's helping. Not sure what this is doing to help, but he's keeping himself occupied so we can get some work done. It's hard work pushing the button on the camera, you know.


Oh look! He found his mommy. YAY! All is right in the world.



This was fun. The kids saw a cottontail rabbit so they were pretending that they were hopping down the bunny trail.





You can't really tell they are hopping, but it was so cute. You just had to be there.

One more little cutie for you....


Can't wait for all the babies to start hitting the ground....I'll be sure to share....they are going to be so cute!

Okay, and thanks for allowing me to share a little of our life with you and procrastinate from mopping my floors once again.

Have a great rainy weekend! Think of all the green grass you will have soon!!

XOXO, Kathy

Tasty Tuesday: Garrett Again!

How has a week gone by since I've blogged? I'm not too sure.

Rest assured, we've had lots of fun in the past week. One day Garrett asked if we could make brownies. I was so excited about this because Courtney always wants to make things in the kitchen and Garrett kind of gets left out when it comes to that kind of thing.

He had so much fun and was introduced to the best part of making "homeade" brownies!




Licking the bowl and sampling!

I don't want to leave Courtney out....here she is on "yellow day" for school in her new boots. They were the only thing yellow that she had, so of course she wore them!

Tasty Tuesday: A Recipe from the G-Man

Garrett and I have been getting alot of good quality time in lately. He is so silly and fun and I love it!

The other day I asked him what he would like for lunch and he said a peanut butter jelly sandwich with a cherry on top. CUTE! I actually talked him into a ham and cheese sandwich because he'd already had a PBJ for breakfast (sometimes it's all we can get him to eat). The only way I talked him into it was if I promised that there would be a cherry on top.

SO...this is not a gourmet meal Tasty Tuesday, but it could be helpful to all moms out there with picky eaters like G.


Here he is...so proud of his sandwich with a cherry on top.


Could a cherry be good on a ham & cheese sandwich?


I think so!

Next time you are at the grocery store pick up a jar of cherries. You never know what you might get your kiddo to eat. Next time it could be brussel sprouts with a cherry on top!

The Big Day

We had such a fun day yesterday that we were all not looking forward to today. A good night's sleep will do a Kindergartner good. She woke ready to go, a little apprehensive, but ready. She was so nervous that she wouldn't eat ANY of her breakfast. I worried about how hungry she would be all morning.


So grown up. She picked out this dress and back pack back in June. I have been so surprised that she didn't have a fit about wanting all the Hello Kitty back packs and lunch boxes that we have seen in the meantime. She was set on this one from the beginning and has never waivered. She does have Hello Kitty socks on though.

We dropped Garrett off at Grandma's on the way so we wouldn't have to chase him around during the Kindergarten parent coffee.

Ready....

Set... (I think that I need to order Justin a lunch box like C's)

Go! (he just didn't want to give up the lunchbox)


I think this picture says it all. She was ready. Ready for us to leave.

Hope you had a fun day sweet girl! We are off to pick her up now. Can't wait to hear all about her first day!